Recent appointments: corporate secretaries and general counsel on the move

Said is a veteran corporate securities lawyer who works as a legal consultant to various TSX and TSX Ventures-listed companies in the mining, oil and gas industries. He previously worked as a securities lawyer at a large Toronto-based corporate law firm.

Said obtained a JD from the University of Toronto and received a BA in business administration (honors) with a minor in economics from Wilfrid Laurier University.
 
Interpublic Group (IPG), an organization of advertising agencies, has announced that Andrew Bonzani has joined the company as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary. Bonzani will report to Michael Roth, IPG’s chairman and chief executive, and succeeds Nick Camera, who is retiring after nearly 20 years with the company.

Bonzani was most recently vice president, assistant general counsel and secretary at IBM. He had been with IBM since 1993 and worked in a number of capacities within the company’s legal department.

At IBM, Bonzani managed the corporate and securities legal department that supports the corporate secretary function. He joined IBM in September of 1993 as an attorney in the corporate legal function. Before that he was associated with the firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York.

Mainstream Minerals, a mineral exploration and development company, has appointed Lisa McCormack to the role of corporate secretary. McCormack is a seasoned professional law clerk specializing in securities and corporate law. Additionally, she is corporate secretary at several public companies, including Trelawney Mining and Exploration.

McCormack has over 15 years of experience working for various securities and corporate finance law firms in Toronto and assisting public issuers within the mining industry.
 
International Lease Finance, a wholly owned subsidiary of AIG and the world’s largest independent aircraft lessor, has nabbed legal eagle Hooman Yazhari.

Yazhari will join International Lease Finance as general counsel. He will head up the company’s global legal team and compliance and regulatory functions, and report to CEO Henri Courpron.

Yazhari most recently served as gategroup’s group senior vice president, general counsel and company secretary, and was a member of gategroup’s executive management board.

Prior to gategroup, Yazhari was a solicitor practicing finance and corporate law at the London offices of Chadbourne & Parke. He was also a founding d rector, general counsel and managing director at EM Health. He started his career as a solicitor in the London and Tokyo offices of Linklaters, practicing in the areas of corporate law, project finance and capital markets.

The long-time litigator obtained his law degree from Oxford University and his LLM from the London School of Economics.
 
VF, a supplier of branded lifestyle apparel, has appointed incumbent vice president and deputy general counsel Laura Meagher to the roles of vice president, general counsel and secretary. She will join VF’s operating committee in May.

Meagher has been practicing corporate law for more than 22 years, eight of them with VF. She will assume overall responsibility for the North Carolina-based company’s legal function, including compliance with securities laws, M&A, general corporate law, corporate governance, intellectual property law and litigation.

Meagher joined VF in 2004 as assistant general counsel. She was appointed to her current role of vice president and deputy general counsel in 2008.
 
Masonite International, a manufacturer of residential and commercial doors, has announced the appointment of Robert Lewis as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary.

Prior to joining Masonite, Lewis was vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for Gerdau Ameristeel in Tampa, Florida, where he managed the company’s legal affairs, external communications, public affairs and governmental relations functions. Before that he was senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for Florida-based Eckerd. He began his career at Shackleford Farrior Stallings & Evans in Tampa.

Lewis has 26 years of legal experience, with an extensive track record in M&A, commercial contracts, litigation, corporate governance and legal compliance. Masonite CEO Fred Lynch says, ‘The skills and expertise he has developed working in top legal organizations will enable us to fulfill our strategic goal of building capabilities and developing talent within our legal department.’

Lewis earned his BS in accounting and his JD with honors from the University of Florida. He is a member of the Florida Bar and the American Bar Association, and has also passed the Florida CPA exam.
 
Plains All American Pipeline (PAA) has named Richard McGee as vice president and general counsel. McGee joined PAA in 2009 as vice president of legal and business development for PAA Natural Gas Storage and in 2011 took on additional responsibilities as vice president and deputy general counsel.

Prior to joining PAA, McGee served three years as general counsel for Duke Energy’s unregulated businesses and as lead counsel for corporate mergers and acquisitions, and eight years as president of Duke Energy International. Before this McGee was a partner at the law firm Vinson & Elkins, where he spent more than 12 years as an energy M&A attorney.
 
Big4.com, a social networking forum for professionals and alumni of Accenture, Andersen, BearingPoint, Capgemini, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), has reported that Margaret Cole has been appointed general counsel of PwC UK. She will also serve on the company’s executive board.

Cole joins PwC from the Financial Services Authority, where she was managing director of enforcement and financial crime. She will be taking over the reigns from Owen Jonathan, the company’s current general counsel and executive board member, after his retirement in December.

From 1990 to 1995, Cole was a partner with Stephenson Harwood. In 1995, she joined the London Office of international law firm White & Case to create and head its dispute resolution department.

OneBeacon Insurance Group, a Bermuda-domiciled holding company, has announced the appointment of Maureen Phillips as senior vice president and general counsel. She will report to Mike Miller, president and chief executive, and succeeds Brad Rich, who is expected to retire at the end of this year.

Phillips’ legal career spans nearly 30 years, primarily within the insurance industry. She was most recently chief legal officer at Allianz Life Insurance, a role she held since 2008. Previously, Phillips held senior legal positions at Fairview Health Services and at St. Paul Travelers, where she spent 17 years in positions of increasing responsibility. She earned her JD from the University of Southern California.
 
The Houston Housing Authority (HHA) has appointed Karen Miniex as the organization’s new general counsel. Miniex comes to the HHA from her own law firm, which specializes in civil litigation, including real estate and construction litigation. She brings a significant amount of expertise and knowledge about affordable housing to the agency from her years with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society and as an advisory board member at the Atlanta Housing Authority.

Miniex is licensed to actively practice in the Texas and Georgia courts. She has a BSc in communication studies from Florida State University and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.
 Miniex will be responsible for all activities associated with the day-to-day operations of the HHA legal department and will ensure that the HHA and its subsidiaries receive the highest standard of legal representation.

Novavax recently appointed John Herrmann III to the position of vice president and general counsel. Herrmann will have responsibility for the legal affairs of the company and will continue to serve as its corporate secretary.

Herrmann joined Novavax in April 2010 as its executive director of legal affairs and corporate secretary, with significant experience as an executive and in-house attorney. Prior to joining Novavax he was vice president and general counsel of Ore Pharmaceuticals, formerly known as Gene Logic.

Before Gene Logic, Herrmann held senior level in-house counsel positions with Celera Genomics and Baxter Healthcare. At Celera, he was responsible for implementing the founder subscription agreements for accessing Celera’s groundbreaking human genome databases.

During his tenure at Baxter he was lead counsel in the development and operation of a renal disease management affiliate that pioneered healthcare management to patients requiring dialysis in the United States.

Herrmann received a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Brown University and his JD from the University of Illinois College of Law.